Bayou Community Foundation seeks grant applicants

The Bayou Community Foundation is accepting grant applications for a program aimed at improving local sustainability and quality of life.

Jacob BatteStaff Writer

The Bayou Community Foundation is accepting grant applications for a program aimed at improving local sustainability and quality of life. The grants will go to programs serving residents of Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes and Grand Isle. The focus will be on mental health counseling and treatment, education, workforce development, and coastal restoration and awareness.“It's the goal of the Bayou Community Foundation to build our capacity for sustainability in Lafourche, Terrebonne and Grand Isle by reinvesting into our nonprofits and governmental agencies to support impactful programs that are helping to create sustainability and create a better quality of life now and in the future,” said Jennifer Armand, Bayou Community Foundation coordinator. The deadline for proposals for the next round of grants is Feb. 21. The proposals will give the foundation's grants committee an idea of the program and information about the population it will service. The committee will go over the proposals and choose several to be developed into full grant proposals in the spring. The grants, anticipated to average $10,000, will be awarded in June. The Bayou Community Foundation was launched last year by residents of both parishes to establish a large community nonprofit organization that can attract and manage donations for education, coastal, and health and human service projects in the region. The foundation is a donor-advised trust of the Greater New Orleans Foundation.In 2012, The Gheens Foundation awarded the Bayou Community Foundation a five-year, $500,000 grant, which, coupled with contributions from local family and corporate foundations, has provided the seed money for this grant-­making program.The foundation is seeking local and national contributions and grants to match the Gheens grant over the next five years to expand its efforts.Earlier this year the foundation awarded $115,000 in grants to local programs.The grants included $40,000 to South Central Louisiana Human Services Authority to support a mobile outreach program for mental health counseling and treatment, $20,000 to Nicholls State University and the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program to help repair the Nicholls Farm Bridge, $20,000 to Options for Independence to initiate a child psychiatry program, $10,000 to the Lafourche Parish School Board to purchase classroom welding equipment at Central Lafourche and South Lafourche high schools, $10,000 to the Fletcher Foundation/South Central Industrial Association to pay for components of the Work It! Louisiana program, $10,000 to the Terrebonne Foundation for Academic Excellence to expand the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, and $5,000 to the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center for several children's wetland awareness programs. “The Bayou Community Foundation is committed to building a sustainable community for our current and future residents, and our grants program is the cornerstone of this commitment. We were very pleased with the grant requests we were able to fill this year in our first grants program and are anxious to do what we can to support more innovative, impactful programs in 2014,” said foundation chair Alexis Duval.Information on the foundation can be found online at www.BayouCF.org.

Staff Writer Jacob Batte can be reached at 448-7635 or jacob.batte@dailycomet.com. Follow him on Twitter @ja_batte.

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